Use of power operated hand knives for slicing comestible materials, such as meat, has become relatively commonplace in meat packing facilities and food service environments. Such knives offer advantages in ease of use, speed and, at least in food service settings, improved portion control. Knives of the sort referred to may find other uses, but for present purposes the knives will be referred to in the context of the food service industry.
An example of power operated slicing knife usage is in preparing so-called "gyros" sandwiches, equivalent sandwiches using meat known as schwarma, donner kebabs, or kebabs, and other related dishes. A large frustoconical body of frozen meat is mounted, base end up, on a vertical spit and rotated about a vertical axis adjacent a broiler extending the height of the meat cone. A relatively thin meat cone surface layer is both defrosted and broiled as it rotates slowly past the broiler. An attendant at a work station adjacent the spit slices the broiled layer from the meat cone with a hand knife.
The meat cone may be constructed in one of three ways. The meat may be finely comminuted, combined with a suitable filler, and pressed into the frustoconical shape under great pressure so that a monolithic meat body is produced. Alternatively, a composite meat body may be formed by stacking single muscle rounds with alternating layers of fat and herbs and pressing the assemblage onto the spit. A third form of meat cone is a composite assembled from single muscle rounds interleaved with pressed comminuted meat rounds pressed onto the spit.